Positive and Negative Aspects of Goods and Services Being Sold Offline and Online

This report evaluates the positive and negative aspects of selling goods and services offline and online, including customer convenience, affordability, increased variety, environmental impact, delay, and increased risk.

Integrated
Professional Kkills
in the Digital Age

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Positive and Negative Aspects of Goods and Services Being Sold Offline and Online.............3
Tools to Keep and Manage Passwords........................................................................................6
Comparing Two Main Track and Trace Applications Used by Population of Different
Countries......................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
The advancements and innovation of new, unique and valuable technological solutions
and the widespread adoption of the internet across increasing number of people of a country’s
given population has brought about the new digital age in the 21st century. The digital age has
changed the entire way in which consumers conduct their shopping or retail business operations.
The digital age has also resulted in the changes to how individuals protect their private and
confidential information on the internet, whether through usernames, passwords or other
credentials, management of which is also extremely problematic and challenging for the
individuals living in the digital age (Wong, Wong and Ke, 2018). The digital age has also
allowed us to combat back against the spread of the deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19) through the
use of contact tracing apps, although their overall value to the society is still questionable. This
report evaluates all these topics in detail in order to come to relevant and reliable conclusions.
MAIN BODY
Positive and Negative Aspects of Goods and Services Being Sold Offline and Online
In the digital age, goods and services manufactured by business organisations are sold to
the consumers in the population through both online and offline channels, with there being
several advantages and some disadvantages to the use of both such online and offline channels
for selling of manufactured goods and products. The major negative and positive aspects of
selling services and goods through online channels are as follows:
Positive Aspects of Goods and Services Being Sold Online:
 Customer Convenience: Conducting the shopping operations through online medium is
highly convenient for the customers because they can browse through all the varied
options available to them on the digital stores in their free time and choose to have the
product delivered right to the doorstep of their desired preferred destination, making the
entire process of shopping online highly convenient for the customers. Shopping online
also allows for customers to make the best use of their limited free time as they do not

have to physical go to the traditional stores and waste their time purchasing goods and
services. Affordable: Another positive aspect of goods and services being sold through online
mediums is that online digital stores provide to the customers several distinct discount
options and vouchers, which the consumers can make use of in order to decrease the
overall cost of their purchased goods or services. This is highly advantageous for the
customers as they get to enjoy the same goods and products at decreased costs when
compared to if the consumers had purchased the same goods and services through
traditional offline physical stores (Falode and et.al., 2016). Another reason that goods and
services sold online have reduced costs attached is because for online goods and services,
there does not exist any kind of middle man between the manufacturer and the customer
who has to take his share from the overall cost of the sold goods and services to the
customers. Increased Variety: Another major positive aspect of goods and services being sold
through the online mediums relates to this medium providing increased variety and range
of products for the customers to choose from when compared to the traditional physical
stores. Through the online mediums, the consumers have access to a very wide range of
good and products sold by various different manufacturers, with the consumer being able
to effectively compare the features and cost of various different goods and services, in
order to come to valid and preferred conclusions for their shopping operations.
Negative Aspects of Goods and Services Being Sold Online:
 Environmental Impact: A major negative aspect of goods and services being sold
through the online mediums relates to the negative impact that these have on the external
environment. As the packaging and delivery of the purchased goods and products by
consumers through online mediums requires excessive use of plastic packaging in order
to ensure that the goods and products do not get damaged during the transportation
process, with this plastic packaging being in several layers, this has a negative impact on
the overall environment and contributes significantly towards plastics pollution. Delay: Another major negative aspect of goods and services being sold through the
online mediums relates to the delay between the customer engaging in financial

transaction and actually receiving the purchased product (Silva and Goncalves, 2016). As
the delivery of the purchased goods and services through online stores requires time,
which may increase based on the delivery destination of the customers, this increased
delay for the consumers to be able to actually use the product for which they have already
paid for is a major negative aspect of goods and services being sold online. Increased Risk: Consumers choosing to conduct their shopping operations through the
online digital stores also carry increased risk of fraud, where their purchased products
through the online mediums might actually be from a fake brand, or might use imitated
designs and low quality raw materials. This is a major negative aspect because the
customer does not know of the purchased product being an imitation or a fake and thus is
not able to protect themselves from fraud when compared to being able to physically
assess and check the quality of purchased products through physical stores.
In addition there also exist various positive and negative aspects of goods and services
being sold to consumer through the offline channels such as:
Positive Aspects of Goods and Services Being Sold Offline:
 Personal Touch: When customers choose to engage in shopping operations through
offline traditional physical stores, then they can be serviced by shop owners and sales
with an increased personal touch, making sure that the purchased goods and products are
actually able to provide value and satisfy the individual needs, demands and requirements
of the customers, which is not possible to be done through online digital stores. Instant Purchase: A major positive aspect of consumers purchasing goods and products
through the offline traditional physical stores is that this medium allows for the customers
to conduct a financial transaction with the offline store and allows for the customers to
start making use of the purchased goods and products without any kind of delay or hold
as they are already in possession of the good or service after they have engaged in
financial transaction with the offline store. Return Options: Physical traditional stores allow for customers to return or replace
purchased goods and services back to the store, if the consumers are not happy with the

purchased product or if the purchased product is not able to satisfy their preferences,
needs, demands or requirements in the way that the customers expected from the product
(Speicher, Cucerca and Krüger, 2017). This is a major positive aspect of goods and
services being sold through the offline traditional medium as it allows for the customers
to have additional trust when purchasing a product, knowing that they would be able to
return the product, should it prove to be invaluable or below expectations of the
customer.
Negative Aspects of Goods and Services Being Sold Offline:
 Exhaustion: A major negative aspect of goods and services being sold through offline
traditional channels is that the customers are required to physically browse through the
various store sections and alleys in search for the goods and products that they are
interested in, while having to ignore but pass through the numerous items and goods that
they do not require, which can make them feel exhausted in time and reduce their interest
in purchasing additional goods and products even if the customer might require such
goods. Crowd: Another major negative aspect of goods and services being sold through the
offline mediums relates to the customer having to bear through the increased number of
other customers that are also conducting their shopping operations in the same offline
store (Agarwal and Agarwal, 2018). This is an even greater issue in current times due to
the Coronavirus pandemic as individuals are required to maintain social distancing from
one another, which is not possible when huge crowds gather at offline stores to conduct
their shopping operations. Increased Prices: Because traditional offline stores have to operate using a middle man
between the manufacturing business organisation and the customers, this results in an
effective increase in the overall prices of goods and products being sold by the offline
traditional store, which is a major negative aspect of offline stores because this results in
an increase of the total cost of goods and services to the consumers, which might be
unaffordable by them.

Tools to Keep and Manage Passwords
As in the digital age, it has become increasingly common for business organisations to
provide the customers with several different types of online services, the consumers and public
in the given population are required to possesses numerous passwords which are required to have
separate credentials. As the usernames and passwords are required to be strong and secure, in
order for the online information of the individuals to be secured and protected, this again makes
it immensely hard for the individuals to keep track and manage their diverse strong passwords as
they might just be too hard to remember for the individuals. This makes it immensely hard and
challenging for individuals to keep track of and manage several different online accounts created
by them that possess different usernames and passwords (Kankane, DiRusso and Buckley, 2018).
In order to address this issue or problem, several digital tools have been designed and created
that help individuals better keep track of and manage their confidential and sensitive credentials
such as various usernames and passwords to be used for different online services provided by
various business organisations.
The two main digital tools that individuals can make use of with the intention to better
keep track of and manage their online usernames and passwords are known as 1Password and
LastPass, both of which are digital software tools that aid their customers to keep better track and
manage their various and diverse passwords used for numerous online services provided by
business organisations.
1Password:
1Password is a digital tool that has been designed and created by Agile Web Solutions
that allows for individuals to create, manage and securely access their stored passwords from a
variety of devices and smartphones. 1Password is a digital application through which users can
store their confidential usernames and passwords for the various online services that they make
use of. 1Password also contains several plugins for all popular web browsers such as Google
Chrome, Firefox, Safari etc. All paid customers are required to register themselves in 1Password
and create their own digital account on which they are bale to store their various passwords and
usernames in a secure and safe manner on 1Password’s secure databases (Arias-Cabarcos and
et.al., 2016). After the user has been registered into the 1Password’s database which can be
stored on the user’s PC or dropbox, whenever the user tries to log into any digital account, the

plugins of 1Password ask the user whether they wish to save their password automatically into
their databases, through which whenever the user tries to access the same site in the future, the
plugins of 1Password would fetch their databases and fill the user’s username and passwords
automatically based on the details stored in their databases. The user also has the option to
manually save their usernames and passwords for the various online services on the 1Password’s
databases, allowing for the users to effectively track and manage their various usernames and
passwords in an effective and efficient manner (Stobert and Biddle, 2018). Additionally,
1Password is also capable of creating highly secure and robust passwords, that are almost
impossible to be hacked by external forces through its proprietary password generator, which
automatically generates and saves user’s passwords, without the user having to memorise
complex characters or numbers as part of their password, increasing the overall safety of the
user’s online information in addition to allowing for its users to better manage their online
passwords.
LastPass:
LastPass is another digital application that can be used by individuals as a tool to
effectively track and manage their confidential and sensitive online usernames and passwords,
that the individual may use for various online services. Just like 1Password, LastPass allows for
its users to effectively save their login information, generate new and highly safe, secure
passwords and recall the saved information from their database in order to efficiently fill the
passwords of their users whenever they revisit their chosen website, without the user ever having
to memorise their passwords (Mohammadinodoushan and et.al., 2019). The key difference
between LastPass and 1Password is that, where the digital database containing sensitive
password information of 1Password was stored on their user’s PC or dropbox, LastPass makes
use of its dedicated servers to store the database containing their user’s sensitive information.
This further increases the overall safety and security of the user’s passwords as in order to gain
access to user’s passwords, the hackers now would need to gain access to LastPass’s servers
which is increasingly more difficult than gaining access to user’s PC in case of 1 Password.
Though the services provided to customers by LastPass and 1Password are highly similar
to one another such as the ability to store various usernames and passwords on databases, auto
filling the usernames and passwords, creating strong and secure passwords through password

generators etc., this report recommends the use of LastPass because of the justification that
LastPass stores the confidential details of their users on its dedicated servers, which provides
increased safety and security to its customers and allows for them to effectively keep and
manage their online usernames and passwords in an effective and efficient manner.
Comparing Two Main Track and Trace Applications Used by Population of Different Countries
In order to be able to effectively curb and counter the spread of the deadly Coronavirus
(COVID-19) within a country’s given population from one person to another, governments of
various countries have created special digital contact tracing applications that are able to keep
track of their user’s movements and trace whether they have come into contact with any other
individual who might be infected with the deadly Coronavirus. This report compares the contact
tracing applications Aarogya Setu and TraceTogether which are contact tracing applications used
by India and Singapore respectively.
Aarogya Setu:
Aarogya Setu is a contact tracing smartphone application that is developed by the
national Informatics Centre of India, which comes under India’s Ministry of Electronics
Information Technology. Aarogya Setu is an open source application and specialises in contact
tracing, self assessment digital service and syndromic mapping functions through the mobile
smartphone application by making use of Bluetooth and location of its users (Sun and et.al.,
2020). The Aarogya Setu contact tracing application has been mandated to be used by the
government of India in order to safeguard its citizens from the spread of the deadly Coronavirus.
The app is being used by more than 100 million Indian citizens. The main features and tools of
the Aarogya Setu application are as follows:
 The application is able to gauge the overall risk of its users becoming infected by the
Coronavirus.
 The application is able to help its users identify if they showcase the symptoms that are
associated with the coronavirus and assess their risk profile.
 The application also provides its users with local and national updates regarding
Coronavirus cases in the entire India.

The Aarogya Setu application has been created on a platform that allows for other
computer programs, mobile devices and web services to make use of Aarogya Setu’s Application
Programming Interface (API), with the intention to make use of the app’s features and data. As
the Aarogya Setu’s open source code was made public in May 2020, public concerns grew
relating to the security and privacy of the public data.
TraceTogether:
TraceTogether is a contact tracing application that was designed and created by the
Singapore government. The app allows for Singapore government to make use of Bluetooth and
BlueTrace protocol in order to contact trace its population with the intention to curb the spread of
the deadly Coronavirus. The use of TraceTogether has been made mandatory by the Singaporean
government for its high risk population, with the app being used by more than 2.3 million
distinct individuals (Hobson and et.al., 2020). TraceTogether is an open source application using
OpenTrace and BlueTrace respectively. By design the TraceTogether places increased focus on
safeguarding and preserving the privacy of its users when compared to the other contact tracing
applications such as Aarogya Setu. In order to safeguard its users privacy the app does the
following:
 The TraceTogether application only stores limited data for 25 days after which it is
automatically deleted.
 The app does not use or collect location data of users through GPS or Wi-Fi.
 TraceTogether creates temporary ID’s of its users making it impossible for hackers to
identify or track its user base.
This report assesses that use of such contact tracing digital applications is immensely
valuable to safeguarding the overall health and safety of a country’s given society and population
from the spread of the deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19) (Hekmati, Ramachandran and
Krishnamachari, 2020). Though such contact tracing applications can be considered as a breach
of the citizen’s privacy, in order for the human beings to be able to defeat the current pandemic
without incurring extreme loss of life, such tools and applications are effectively required to be
used by the governments of various countries, provided that the governments of countries assure
the citizens that their private data is kept in a safe and secure manner.

CONCLUSION
Through the findings of this report, it can effectively be concluded that the digital age has
completely changed the way in which human beings conduct their daily operations, with the new
strategies showcasing several challenges and advantages. This report analyses the negative and
positive aspects of products and services being sold offline and online. This report also evaluates
the two digital tools that individuals can make use of in order to keep and manage their
confidential and sensitive information related to their usernames and passwords in an effective
and efficient manner. Further the report assesses and compares different contact tracing
applications that are used by the citizens of two distinct countries in order to compare their
specifications, features etc., and analyse whether such contact tracing applications provide any
kind of value to the society or not.

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